Lets continue to learn what the Bible says about the state of the dead...
In "Part one" of this series we covered:
Once you die you:
- No longer have any thoughts, emotions (love, hatred, envy), memories.
- No longer work, have no wisdom.
- Can’t even praise God, because you have none of the above.
- You can’t talk to anyone, you are “silent”!
- You “sleep” and wait for the “last day”…the day where Jesus returns and resurrects you back to life.
There is a specific appointed time when the dead will rise.
- There is a specific "hour" or a time when the dead in Christ will rise to life and now have consciousness. This is known as the day of resurrection or the last day.
- Martha clearly understood that the dead will not rise to life again until an appointed time...that is, on the last day the day when God resurrects the dead.
God doesn't judge us when we die.
- It's at the appearing that the Lord Jesus Christ will pronounce judgment on the saved and the wicked.
NOTE: Hebrews 9:27 confuses many and do not understand that this is a reminder that one day all of us will have to face judgment someday.
Ghosts are not people who were once alive.
Question: So who are they? How do they know me so well?
Answer: These are demonic spirits to deceive the living. The bible tells us the devil and his angels can appear to be something they are not.
- If Satan and his angels can impersonate good angels, then it's no problem for them to impersonate our loved ones. This is why God forbids communication with the dead, because it is a method to deceive the living.
- You see, the Devil wants more than anything to deceive us and will use our loved ones as messengers from heaven to make us believe them, instead of Gods word.
We Don't have "Immortal Souls."
- Therefore, no, souls are not immortal. They can die.
- Only God is immortal and only the saved will attain immortality when God returns.
Souls are not independent life forms.
Our souls is not something that can exist outside of our body. Instead, the Bible says, "...we are a soul."
Therefore a soul is a combination of = A body + breath of life.
A living "soul" and a living "being" are synonymous.
Question: So what is a "spirit?"
Answer: The breath of God.
Job is saying, the breath of God is in his nostrils. Which is a reference to how Adam was created.
So what does the following verse mean?
- This is the creation of man, in reverse. The breath of God (the spirit) returns to Him and we then form back into dust. Thus, we no longer have a body and no spirit (breath) and therefore are no longer a soul.
Let’s summarize what we read.
- The dead in Christ will be resurrected when Christ returns.
- Gods judgment will occur when He returns.
- Ghosts are not the spirits of dead people, they are demons.
- Our souls are not immortal.
- Souls are not something that can exist outside of our bodies.
- The Spirit is the breath of God, which is what the body needs to have a soul.
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Great blog once again!
I like the equation of the soul :)
Breath of life + body.
Another example could be Genesis 14:21:
21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself.
That word persons is actually nephesh which is soul.
Thanks, I think part 3 should cover the rest of what I wanted to say about the state of the dead. We can thank the Catholic church for confusing the matter. They are a mish-mosh of Pagan + Christianity. And as they mixed the two together they confused everything.
Genesis 14:21 is a great one. Lots of other examples in the Bible :-)
Like last time you pick and choose which Bible verses fit your conclusions.
Moses, who the Bible says died, was with Jesus at the transfiguration.
(Matthew 17:3 NIV) Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.
Jesus told the thief on the cross that he would be with him in paradise that day and the thief on the cross died.
(Luke 23:40-43 NIV) But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? {41} We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." {42} Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." {43} Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise."
Jesus talked about the rich man and Lazarus in hell. It would be foolish to assume it's just a parable with no meaning. Obviously, the story is about hell even if going to "Abraham's side" must have some other meaning.
(Luke 16:19-31 NIV) "There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. {20} At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores {21} and longing to eat what fell from the rich man's table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. {22} "The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. {23} In hell, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. {24} So he called to him, 'Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.' {25} "But Abraham replied, 'Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. {26} And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' {27} "He answered, 'Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my father's house, {28} for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.' {29} "Abraham replied, 'They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.' {30} "'No, father Abraham,' he said, 'but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.' {31} "He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.'"
(Revelation 6:9-11 NIV) When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. {10} They called out in a loud voice, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" {11} Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and brothers who were to be killed as they had been was completed.
It should be obvious that the saved dead go immediately into Heaven where they are souls without a body. At the resurrection they receive bodies.
The Jehovah's Witnesses teach soul death. Annihilation at the judgment. They teach that no one suffers in hell for an eternity.
Your view that the dead stay dead until the resurrection is neither biblical nor keeping with the majority of evangelical believers.
https://bible.org/seriespage/8-consciousness-soul-after-death
The martyrdom of Stephen is a strong argument in favor of the supremacy and the survival of the spiritual part of man. When they stoned Stephen to death, we read that “he fell asleep.” This could have no reference whatever to the soul, for it was his body they had pummeled with rocks. As Stephen’s body went to its death, earth was receding but Heaven’s gate approaching. He knew that he was entering into another sphere of the living. He prayed: “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit” (Acts 7:59). This disciple of Christ did not seek to postpone death or to fight it off. His murderers held no fear for him. He remembered the words of Jesus: “Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do” (Luke 12:4). It is the assurance of immortality and eternal life that enables the servants of Jesus Christ to bear suffering, face all opposition, and die if they are called upon to do so. The scoffing and the scorning of the enemies of Christ can never cheat us out of the presence of our Lord and the place that He has prepared for us.
The Apostle Paul gives us a glimpse into his inner life in an experience that appears only once in all of his writings.
It is not expedient for me doubtless to glory. I will come to visions and revelations of the Lord. I knew a man in Christ above fourteen years ago, (whether in the body, I cannot tell, or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth;) such an one caught up to the third heaven. And I knew such a man, (whether in the body, or out of the body, I cannot tell; God knoweth;) How that He was caught up into paradise, and heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter (2 Corinthians 12:1-4).
In this singular but rich experience of Paul’s there is valuable material that bears upon our subject. So personal and sacred was this experience that Paul is reticent to tell. There is no doubt that the mighty Apostle is referring to himself, although he refers to himself in the third person. Fourteen years before the writing of this Epistle, Paul says that he was caught up into the “third heaven,” also called “paradise.” The Bible speaks of three heavens. There is the atmospheric heaven in which the birds fly, the heaven where the stars shine, and the third heaven, called paradise, where God is and where His glory is set forth. It was into the third heaven, into the presence of God, where the great apostle was taken. If we study the chronology of Paul’s journeys and labors we find that a little more than fourteen years before he wrote his Epistle to the Corinthians he was laboring at Lystra (Acts 14:19). There the Jews stoned him and dragged him outside the city supposing he had been dead. It is generally believed that his experience in paradise to which he refers took place at Lystra while he lay unconscious. He tells us that he was so enraptured by the glories that he saw in Heaven that he did not know whether or not he was there in body--“whether in the body, I cannot tell; or whether out of the body, I cannot tell: God knoweth.” Do not overlook the teaching here. It is possible to be fully conscious and yet be absent from the body. Such clear and unmistakable teaching as this of the Apostle Paul defies and defeats the theory of “soul-sleep.”
There are three accounts of our Lord’s raising the dead. Each time He approached the dead and spoke to him as if he were alive. To the son of the widow of Nain He said: “Young man, I say unto thee, Arise” (Luke 7:14). When Christ came to the daughter of Jairus, we are told: “He took her by the hand, and called, saying, Maid, arise” (Luke 8:54). Finally, He said to the brother of Mary and Martha: “Lazarus, come forth” (John 11:43). In each case Jesus speaks to the person as if he were alive. We can only answer that each was alive. As G. Campbell Morgan says: “The body was dead. The man was not dead. No man is ever dead when his body lies dead!” The soul of man will never enter into a state of non-existence nor unconsciousness.
In Christ’s account of the rich man and Lazarus we have the matter summed up and settled that the soul is conscious after death. Both men died and were buried. Though their bodies were in the graves, each of them was alive and conscious. The rich man in Hell could see, hear, speak, and feel (Luke 16:19-31).
Let the unsaved heed God’s warning. There is a life after death. The unsaved and the saved will be separated from each other. The lost will doubtless carry with them some memories of the past, and their retribution for rejecting Christ will be endless.
But let the believer take courage and be comforted. When we move out of this tabernacle, the real man will leave the body and enter into the presence of the Lord.
You raise once again very good, commonly misunderstood objections. As soon as I have a break I'd like to respond again to each of your objections. I think I may even do a post on it since it really seems to be a big wall for many people.
Since you raised so many objections, which are simple enough to explain, I will respond by the next series of posts where I'll address each of your points. I really think they are important enough to give them a higher priority by addressing as a "full post" vs a "comment" response. I just don't want anyone to miss it, since these are great objections.
ademas la biblia dice:
ECLESIASTÉS 3:11 El ha hecho todo lo apropiado a su tiempo. También ha puesto la eternidad en sus corazones; sin embargo, el hombre no descubre la obra que Dios ha hecho desde el principio hasta el fin.
And what does that verse mean to you?